Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson has vetoed some expenditures from the recently approved fiscal year 2027 budget and is recommending the City Council allocate the money saved toward public safety enhancements.
The announcement about the line-item vetoes came on Friday, Sept. 11, after the mayor sent a letter to the council about his decisions. Of the $4 billion approved budget, which was OK’d by the City Council on Tuesday, the vetoes will make an impact on the city’s general fund, which has been anticipating a deficit for the past couple of years. The mayor’s vetoes will reduce the general fund expenditures by about $660,000.
After reviewing the FY27 adopted budget and prior-year appropriations carrying available balances, Richardson said, he identified several expenditures appropriate for reduction by exercising his line-item veto authority, focusing on two key areas: one-time funds and structural general funds.
“The veto message is about keeping a watchful eye on our decisions, so we don’t go back on the progress that we just made,” Richardson said in an interview on Friday afternoon. “Like next year, with the new Measure A dollars, they match up with what the proposed deficit is next year. We could be in a scenario where if we hold the line, and we maintain our discipline, we could be in a place where next year, and for the next five years, we have structurally balanced budgets and even surpluses.”
The line-item vetoes include eliminating $363,000 in unspent one-time funding previously appropriated for Cannabis Audit Capacity; reducing approximately $145,000 in remaining one-time funds for Strategic Merger Consulting Services; and reducing funding for two memberships and subscriptions within the City Manager Department – $7,500 for the Independent Cities Association and $13,000 for SoCal Grantmakers.
In the adopted budget, the City Council approved $230,000 for the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department to conduct weed abatement and for supplies/maintenance. While these are worthwhile services, Richardson said, in the city’s current fiscal environment, new structural general fund enhancements must be weighed against the city’s most immediate life-saving and emergency-response needs.
The appropriate balance, the mayor said, is to preserve about $98,000 for enhanced weed abatement while eliminating the $115,000 supplies/maintenance enhancement and reducing the weed abatement enhancement by $16,969. This preserves additional resources for neighborhood cleanups while generating about $132,000 in ongoing structural general fund savings.
Together, Richardson’s veto actions reduce general fund expenditures by around $660,000 – $528,000 in one-time reductions and $132,000 in structural reductions.
While a mayoral veto cannot directly repurpose funds, the structural parks reduction creates the opportunity for City Council to spend the saved money on public safety priorities, Richardson said.
Richardson is recommending the council bring forward a joint motion to repurpose these newly available funds toward an additional Paramedic Assessment Unit on Engine 1 at Station 1 to bolster immediate, life-saving capacity in downtown without increasing the city’s structural deficit.
Allocating the money now available will have to be made by the City Council once the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
“We upgraded three engines that are around Station 14 to PAUs already,” Richardson said. “When Station 14 was closed for construction, Engine 14 as a PAU shifted to downtown, and that’s where it saw significantly more calls. These resources are part of a broader system. Anytime you add resources or enhancements to the system, it improves everywhere. We’ve already done all the engines around 14, now downtown is where the most need would exist.”
The FY27 budget season required difficult and deliberate choices, the mayor said in his letter, to address a long-term structural deficit that has persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic, while navigating a shifting economic and budgetary environment nationwide.
Throughout the process, city officials listened to the community and worked to preserve and restore essential neighborhood services while maintaining their commitment to long-term fiscal responsibility – and this is part of that.
In the letter, Richardson added that the city must continue replenishing its reserves, growing and diversifying its revenue base to support the city services residents expect, and exercising discipline when considering new general fund expenditures.
“It can’t be (overstated) how important it is that Long Beach made the decision to right the fiscal ship post-COVID,” Richardson said. “This is adding much-needed stability that our employees and our residents deserve but now we have to protect that progress.”
